Quentin’s paper showing substantial cooperative effects between pyridoxal and Fe(III) or Al(III) ions in prebiotic transamination reactions is accepted for publication in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Many thanks to Robert for the DFT studies. The last paper from Kamila’s time in the group – the end of an era. Congrats to all!
Congratulations and farewell to long-time group member Dr. Kamila Muchowska, who accepts an associate position in integrative consulting at McKinsey, London, UK. Kamila published eight papers in the group, with one still to come. She was a postdoc in the group from 2016-2019 and a CNRS research associate (equivalent to assistant professor) from 2019-2022. We are grateful for her many contributions over the years, both scientific and social. She will be missed. Best of luck in the new career and come visit often!
The Moran Lab celebrates 10 great years! Several former group members from around Europe were able to attend the celebration and shared short presentations about their jobs and life since leaving the lab. A day to remember!
Harpreet Kaur presented her PhD research (as well as some of Emilie’s and Sophia’s) on rare metal catalysis in prebiotic chemistry at the latest virtual meeting of NASA’s Prebiotic Chemistry and Early Earth Environments (PCE3) Research Coordination Network. As a bonus, don’t miss the 5-minute introduction to protometabolism by Kamila Muchowska. Well done, Harpreet!
You can watch her talk here (skip to 12:20)
The research field of protometabolism, including work from our lab and quotes from Joseph and Kamila, is the subject of an article in National Geographic. Thanks to Michael Marshall for this accessible piece. Read it here.
Jing’s work on a non enzymatic analog of pyrimidine nucleobase biosynthesis has been accepted for publication in Angewandte Chemie International Edition. Congrats!
Congrats to Kamila Muchowska for being chosen as one of the six finalists for the European Young Chemist Award at the Early Career Researcher level!
Kamila and Sreejith’s 37-page review on the feasibility and importance of non enzymatic metabolic reactions for the origin of life has appeared in Chemical Reviews. We hope it will inspire others to pursue this direction. Congrats!
Our fourth experimental paper on the chemical origins of life is published in Nature Ecology & Evolution. It is the result of an international collaboration with researchers in Germany and Japan. We show that three common iron-based minerals promote the hydrogenation of carbon dioxide to give, almost exclusively, the intermediates and end-products of the Acetyl CoA pathway. This enzyme-free chemistry maps closely onto the biological pathway, suggesting it had geochemical origins. Congrats to Kamila and Sreejith from our group and thanks to our great collaborators! Free read-only version here. Paywall version here. Also check out the accompanying Behind the Paper post here.
Our third paper on the chemical origins of life is published in Nature. We show that ferrous iron promotes a one-pot reaction network that resembles the Krebs cycle and amino acid synthesis, starting from just pyruvate and glyoxylate. These enzyme-free reactions could have been a precursor to biological metabolism. Congrats to Kamila and Sreejith! Free read-only version here. Paywall version here. Also, check out the accompanying News & Views article by Robert Pascal here.
The Moran Research Group 